1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to communication systems, particularly indoor communication systems including cellular telephones, personal communication services (PCS), wireless private branch exchange (PBX) and wireless local loop telephone systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to a novel and improved distributed antenna system for microcellular communication systems to facilitate indoor communications using spread spectrum signals.
1. Description of the Related Art
The use of code division multiple access (CDMA) modulation techniques is one of several techniques for facilitating communications in which a large number of system users are present. Other multiple access communication system techniques, such as frequency hopping spread spectrum, time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA) and amplitude modulation schemes such as amplitude companded single sideband (ACSSB) are known in the art. However the spread spectrum modulation technique of CDMA has significant advantages over these modulation techniques for multiple access communication systems. The use of CDMA techniques in a multiple access communication system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,901,307, issued Feb. 13, 1990, entitled "SPREAD SPECTRUM MULTIPLE ACCESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM USING SATELLITE OR TERRESTRIAL REPEATERS", assigned to the assignee of the present invention, of which the disclosure thereof is incorporated by reference.
In the just mentioned patent, a multiple access technique is disclosed where a large number of mobile telephone system users each having a transceiver communicate through satellite repeaters or terrestrial base stations (also referred to as cell-sites stations, cell-sites, or for short, cells) using code division multiple access (CDMA) spread spectrum communication signals. In using CDMA communications, the frequency spectrum can be reused multiple times thus permitting an increase in system user capacity. The use of CDMA results in a much higher spectral efficiency than can be achieved using other multiple access techniques.
The terrestrial channel experiences signal fading that is characterized by Rayleigh fading. The Rayleigh fading characteristic in the terrestrial channel signal is caused by the signal being reflected from many different features of the physical environment. As a result, a signal arrives at a mobile unit receiver from many directions with different transmission delays. At the UHF frequency bands usually employed for mobile radio communications, including those of cellular mobile telephone systems, significant phase differences in signals traveling on different paths may occur. The possibility for destructive summation of the signals may result, with on occasion deep fades occurring.
Terrestrial channel fading is a very strong function of the physical position of the mobile unit. A small change in position of the mobile unit changes the physical delays of all the signal propagation paths, which further results in a different phase for each path. Thus, the motion of the mobile unit through the environment can result in a quite rapid fading process. For example, in the 850 MHz cellular radio frequency band, this fading can typically be as fast as one fade per second per mile per hour of vehicle speed. Fading this severe can be extremely disruptive to signals in the terrestrial channel resulting in poor communication quality. Additional transmitter power can be used to overcome the problem of fading. However, such power increases effect both the user by excessive power consumption, and the system by increased interference.
The direct sequence spread spectrum CDMA modulation techniques disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,901,307 offer many advantages over narrow band modulation techniques used in communication systems employing satellite or terrestrial repeaters. The terrestrial channel poses special problems to any communication system particularly with respect to multipath signals. The use of CDMA techniques permit the special problems of the terrestrial channel to be overcome by mitigating the adverse effect of multipath, e.g. fading, while also exploiting the advantages thereof.
In a CDMA communication system, the same wideband frequency channel can be used for communication by all base stations. Typically a FDMA scheme is used where one frequency band is used for communications from the base stations to the remote or mobile stations (forward link) and another for communications from the remote or mobile stations to the base stations (reverse link). The CDMA waveform properties that provide processing gain are also used to discriminate between signals that occupy the same frequency band. Furthermore the high speed pseudonoise (PN) modulation allows many different propagation paths to be separated, provided the difference in path delays exceed the PN chip duration, i.e. 1/bandwidth. If a PN chip rate of approximately 1 MHz is employed in a CDMA system, the full spread spectrum processing gain, equal to the ratio of the spread bandwidth to system data rate, can be employed to discriminate against paths that differ by more than one microsecond in path delay from each other. A one microsecond path delay differential corresponds to differential path distance of approximately 1,000 feet. The urban environment typically provides differential path delays in excess of one microsecond, and up to 10-20 microseconds are reported in some areas.
In narrow band modulation systems such as the analog FM modulation employed by conventional telephone systems, the existence of multiple paths results in severe multipath fading. With wideband CDMA modulation, however, the different paths may be discriminated against in the demodulation process. This discrimination greatly reduces the severity of multipath fading. Multipath fading is not totally eliminated in using CDMA discrimination techniques because there occasionally exists paths with delayed differentials of less than the PN chip duration for the particular system. Signals having path delays on this order cannot be discriminated against in the demodulator, resulting in some degree of fading.
It is therefore desirable in the such communication systems that some form of diversity be provided which would permit a system to reduce fading. Diversity is one approach for mitigating the deleterious effects of fading. Three major types of diversity exist: time diversity, frequency diversity, and space diversity.
Time diversity can best be obtained by the use of repetition, time interleaving, and error detection and correction coding which is a form of repetition. The present invention employs each of these techniques as a form of time diversity.
CDMA by its inherent nature of being a wideband signal offers a form of frequency diversity by spreading the signal energy over a wide bandwidth. Therefore, frequency selective fading affects only a small part of the CDMA signal bandwidth.
Space or path diversity is obtained by providing multiple signal paths through simultaneous links from a mobile user through two or more base stations. Furthermore, path diversity may be obtained by exploiting the multipath environment through spread spectrum processing by allowing a signal arriving with different propagation delays to be received and processed separately. Examples of path diversity are illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,101,501, issued Mar. 31, 1992, entitled "SOFT HANDOFF IN A CDMA CELLULAR TELEPHONE SYSTEM", and U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,390, issued Apr. 28, 1992, entitled "DIVERSITY RECEIVER IN A CDMA CELLULAR TELEPHONE SYSTEM", both assigned to the assignee of the present invention.
The deleterious effects of fading can be further controlled to a certain extent in a CDMA system by controlling transmitter power. A fade which decreases the power received by the base station from the mobile unit can be compensated for by increasing the power transmitted by the mobile station. The power control function operates in accordance with a time constant. Depending on the time constant of the power control loop and the length of time of a fade, the system may compensate for the fade by increasing the transmit power of the mobile unit. A system for base station and mobile unit power control is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,056,109, issued Oct. 8, 1991, entitled "METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING TRANSMISSION POWER IN A CDMA CELLULAR MOBILE TELEPHONE SYSTEM", also assigned to the assignee of the present invention.
The existence of multipath can provide path diversity to a wideband PN CDMA system. If two or more paths are available with differential path delay greater than one chip duration two or more PN receivers can be employed to separately receive these signals at a single base station or mobile unit. Since these signals typically exhibit independence in multipath fading, i.e., they usually do not fade together, the outputs of the two receivers can be diversity combined. Therefore a loss in performance only occurs when both receivers experience fades at the same time. Hence, one aspect of the present invention is the provision of two or more PN receivers in combination with a diversity combiner. In order to exploit the existence of multipath signals, to overcome fading, it is necessary to utilize a waveform that permits path diversity combining operations to be performed.
A method and system for constructing PN sequences that provide orthogonality between the users so that mutual interference is reduced is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,103,459, issued Apr. 7, 1992, entitled "SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR GENERATING SIGNAL WAVEFORMS IN A CDMA CELLULAR MOBILE TELEPHONE SYSTEM", also assigned to the assignee of the present invention. Using these techniques to reduce mutual interference allows higher system user capacity and better link performance. With orthogonal PN codes, the cross-correlation is zero over a predetermined time interval, resulting in no interference between the orthogonal codes, provided only that the code time frames are time aligned with each other.
The above mentioned patents and patent applications disclose a novel multiple access technique wherein a large number of mobile unit telephone system users communicate through satellite repeaters or terrestrial base stations using code division multiple access spread spectrum modulation that allows the spectrum to be used multiple times. The resulting system design has a much higher spectral efficiency than can be achieved using previous multiple access techniques.
In cellular telephone systems, a large geographic area is provided with mobile telephone service by installing a number of base stations, each positioned to cover a cell, and the set of cells situated so as to provide coverage of the entire geographic area. If service demand exceeds the capacity that can be provided by a set of base stations providing coverage over a certain area, the cells are subdivided into smaller cells and more base stations are added. This process has been carried out to the extent that some major metropolitan areas have nearly 400 base stations.
In a further development of the cellular telephone idea, it is desired to provide a number of very small cells, called microcells, which would provide coverage of a very limited geographic area. Usually, it is considered that such areas are limited to a single floor of an office building and the mobile telephone service can be viewed as a cordless telephone system that may or may not be compatible with the mobile cellular telephone system. The rationale for providing such a service is similar to the reasoning for use of Private Branch Exchange (PBX) systems in business offices. Such systems provide for low cost phone service for a large number of calls between phones within the business while providing simplified dialing for internal phone numbers. A few lines are also provided to connect the PBX system to the public telephone system, allowing calls to be made and received between telephones in the PBX system and telephones located elsewhere. It is desirable for the microcell system to provide a similar level of service but with the added feature of cordless operation anywhere within the service area of the PBX.
In the indoor communication system environment, path delays are typically much shorter in duration than experienced in the outdoor communication system environment. In buildings and other indoor environments where indoor communication systems are used, it is necessary to provide a form of diversity which enables discrimination between multipath signals.
The primary problem solved by the disclosed invention is the provision of a simple antenna system that provides high capacity, simple installation, good coverage and excellent performance. Another problem solved by the present invention is that it achieves the above coverage while maintaining compatibility with the mobile cellular system and while taking a negligible amount of capacity away from the mobile system. This is achieved in the disclosed invention by combining the capacity properties of CDMA with a new distributed antenna design that confines the radiation to a very limited and carefully controlled area.
The implementation of spread spectrum communication techniques, particularly CDMA techniques, in an indoor environment provides features which vastly enhance system reliability and capacity over other communication systems. CDMA techniques as previously mentioned further enable problems such as fading and interference to be readily overcome. Accordingly, CDMA techniques further promote greater frequency reuse, thus enabling a substantial increase in the number of system users.